At several places I’ve worked, I developed a reputation as a “fun farmer.” I was the guy who’d play almost any game, regardless of the review scores, and try to find the nuggets of goodness in them. I could usually find something that made the effort worthwhile – a single feature, a great cinematic moment, […]
Monkey Business: Who’s To Blame for Skull Island: Rise of Kong? Read More »
I flew from California for my first visit to Dallas late on a sunny afternoon in early September. I had left my job a couple of months earlier, quitting a toxic work situation without an immediate backup plan for the first time in my career. I’d been in California for a couple of years, and
Dallas Developer: Twenty Years of Making Games in North Texas Read More »
Phantom Liberty, the recently released DLC for Cyberpunk 2077, is great. The story is compelling and lengthy, a masterclass in how to seamlessly add post-ship content into the middle of an existing narrative. The 2.0 patch for the game, which launched shortly before the DLC, overhauls and improves many of the game’s core systems, including
The Price of Redemption: When Bad Games Go Good Read More »
Here we go again. Last week, the game industry was rocked by 800 layoffs at Epic Games, nearly 16% of their total workforce. The announcement is just the latest in a string of “reductions in force” across the game industry – Striking Distance, Relic, Amazon, and Probably Monsters among them. I can’t remember a more
Destructive Imbalance: The Need for Game Developers to Organize Read More »
I’ve finished Starfield’s main story and one of the faction lines, and I think I’m done with the game for the moment. I’m intrigued by their clever NG+ gimmick, and I’ll revisit it after a patch or two. Overall, I’d rank it as a solid game – perhaps an 8/10 – but it never got
Finding the Thread: Building Strong Narrative in Games Read More »
Warning: spoilers for the midgame of Starfield, including some companion details. The first game I can remember playing where I cared about a player-centered romance storyline was Bioware’s Baldur’s Gate 2: Shadows of Amn. The romanceable companions each had a deep storyline that ran in parallel with the main plot. Though there were a few
Equal Measures Tragic and Creepy: A Starfield Love Story Read More »
Warning: light spoilers for the first several hours of Starfield. I have a lifetime of fond memories of Bethesda games. I say this to provide full context for my criticisms below. After the first fifteen hours or so, I’m critical of aspects of the game and its design, but this shouldn’t be read as a
Yep, a Bethesda Game: Starfield First Impressions Read More »
There’s an analogy I like for game development that I’m fond of stretching beyond plausibility to make a point. I first used my favorite metaphor years ago when I started blogging, and I’ve been itching to expand on my original premise ever since. For as many years as I’ve been in the game industry, I’ve
Climbing High: A Tortured Metaphor for Game Development Read More »
My son started eighth grade in the Texas public school system last week – trudging to the bus with an overladen backpack on a muggy August morning, returning in the afternoon’s 100-degree heat exhausted and overwhelmed. My son is a great student. He’s rules-bound, focused, and more concerned about his grades and pleasing his teachers
Feed the Machine: The Future of Remote Work Read More »
I can’t help myself – I have to spend another week’s worth of digital ink on Baldur’s Gate 3. (This blog is spoiler-free, minus whatever the screenshots give away.) After 25 hours of play with the full version, I’m confident in saying Baldur’s Gate 3 is the masterpiece the hype suggested it would be. So
The Familiar and the New: Design Takeaways from Baldur’s Gate 3 Read More »